Scuba diver sucked into nuclear power plant pipe

Christopher Le Cun tumbled for nearly five minutes, desperately trying to hang on to his scuba mask and regulator, and when he looked up all he saw was pitch black.

Le Cun was trapped in an underwater pipe for a nuclear power plant in Florida.

“All I could think about was these horror movies, you know?” he told WSVN about his horrific experience on July 12. “This big turbine coming and I’m coming for it, you know? It’s going to chop me up and kill me. And I just contemplated, do I pull the regulator out of my mouth and just die?”

But Le Cun ultimately focused on a tiny glint of light, swam towards it and emerged in one of the Florida plant’s reservoirs, safe – and in one piece. Now he's suing the power company.

Le Cun, his family and a friend had been boating when Le Cun looked down and saw a massive structure beneath a yellow buoy. An experienced diver, he put on his scuba gear and swam towards it. That’s when the friend said Le Cun was “sucked in like a wet noodle.”

The Florida Power & Light’s Port St. Lucie nuclear plant pipe that Le Cun entered is a quarter of a mile long and draws in 500,000 gallons of water per minute to cool the plant’s reactors, according to WSVN.

Le Cun is currently suing Florida Power & Light, arguing there was no warning about the dangerous tube. A company spokesperson told WSVN the buoy is marked “Stay back 100 feet.”

Le Cun is not the first diver to be sucked into the pipe. William Lamm traveled 1,600 feet through the tube in 1989 before he was spit out in a cooling pond, UPI reported.